Stars Over Mimban

[Greybok]

The Stormbringer burst out of hyperspace and into realspace on the far side of Mimban, carrying as its compliment Greybok's Starbird and Alys's starfighter. The corvette's Wookiee crew was working diligently to ensure that sufficient power was focused to the shields and weapons; and when the crew reported that the corvette was ready, General Greybok stood on the bridge and opened a channel to Alys, who was below in the hangar bay, likely preparing her starfighter for launch.

«Commander Alys, this is General Greybok on the bridge,» the Wookiee hooted in his native tongue. She was among the few members of Star Squadron that could actually converse with him in Shyriiwook without needing Twobee as a translator. «We're approaching Mimban now. You have my clearance to launch when ready and escort the Stormbringer in. When we enter firing-range, your primary objective is to give us cover while the corvette focuses on the shield tower. With any luck, we can make this quick and clean.»

Greybok had already ordered the head navigator on his bridge to begin making the calculations for an escape jump to lightspeed should things turn south. All Alys would need to do is dock with the Stormbringer and they would be seeing stars in four rounds. But Greybok didn't foresee that kind of trouble emerging over Mimban. The Empire was focused on defending the Core Worlds from its own civil war right now. If they were really dumb enough to waste good ships on Mimban, then they deserved to fall in the Core, as far as he was concerned.

Not to mention, though she had rubbed him wrong with her recent handling of Corellia, Greybok silently had faith in Alysanne Drast. She was his second-in-command and one of his best pilots. Not to mention she was a Jedi. He felt sorry for any Imperials who tried to mess with them when they teamed up. @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

She was working on the Moondancer, performing some last minute tuning to the starfighter, when a warning blared over the PA system about imminent arrival in the Mimban system. Putting away the tools she was messing around with, satisfied that there was little more she could do to the ship now that they were so close to combat, she cleaned her hands on a rag before pulling on her gloves that sealed onto her flight-suit.

She had walked over to a viewing port and was staring out at the distant planet when a tiny boop in her ear indicating the comms turning on. Already fully dressed in her flight suit, she didn't really have to do much to prepare for launch after she heard Greybok's words. "Copy that General." She didn't say more, trying to be as professional as she could, it was gonna take some time before Grey got over her little stunt on Corellia. She knew he didn't approve of her running off with Valentine, but the fact that he had agreed to let her fly with him today was a good sign. Sooner or later he would have to forgive her, and she was willing to wait. After all, a Jedi was supposed to be patient.

Turning away from the viewport, she began walking back towards the Moondancer, gesturing with her raised hand to let the other pilots and technicians in the hangar know that she was about to launch. Mere minutes after they had reverted to real-space and Grey's communication, she was fully strapped into her ship and once she had the go ahead from hangar control, she flipped a switch that kicked on her engines and the Moondancer's repulsors kicked in as it floated a few meters above the surface. Waiting till she was outside the hangar, she pushed the accelerator yoke forward, picking up speed and falling into formation with the Stormbringer. Flying a little ahead and to the side of the larger ship, she had her sensors actively scanning space in front of them, aimed straight at the planet. She was relying on the corvette's more powerful sensors to pick up any surprises that might show up from any other direction and warn her while she was so focused on the planet.

"Star One in position General." She sent an appropriately short reply to the Stormbringer once she was in position, though despite everything she couldn't help but follow it up with a short and sincere, "May the Force be with us!"

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

«Copy that, Star One.» And may the Force be with you too.

The Stormbringer soon entered firing range of the station. The comm officer motioned for Greybok, who walked down the bridge to the communication pit. The Wookiee nodded and the Wookiee comm officer patched the communication through. A voice came over the comm channel and said, "Unidentified vessel, please identify yourself and transmit your clearance codes."

Greybok smirked and nodded again. The communications officer cut the channel. Then, Greybok said, «You heard him, boys. Let's 'identify ourselves'. Target their shield tower with the medium laser turrets and open fire.» He finished giving his orders and immediately opened his personal comm channel to Alys. «Star One, we are commencing our attack on the enemy station. We should have her shields peeled off of her shortly. Keep your eyes wide-open for bogeys and call out if you require our assistance.»

As the communication finished, red laser fire began to lance out from the Stormbringer and slam into the shield tower, just as the Wookiee general had commanded. Pleased, Greybok put his hairy arms behind his back and began to pace along the bridge. «Good work. Keep up the barrage. Navigator?» He glanced down the pit at the navigation officer, a blonde Wookiee. «Status report on the calculations for the jump to lightspeed? I don't expect the Imps to give us much of a fight, but I want to be ready just in case.»

«Aye, sir. I've got the navicomputer working on it per your orders. I should have a working escape route in about three more minutes.»

Grey nodded. Good. Three more rounds and their hit-and-run mission would be complete. @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to center herself as the first shots flew out from the Stormbringer, declaring the begining of the fight. As her eyes snapped open, the Force not really flowing through her but there just beyond her consciousness, a calming presence that gave her reflexes that tiny boost that could make all the difference in a dogfight, she pushed her accelerator all the way to the max, pulling ahead of the corvette and building up some space between them in case she needed to take care of any bogeys.

As if on cue, a pair of pings beeped to life on her sensors, two starfighters from their size and speed. As they veered off straight towards the Stormbringer, Alys grinned as she pulled back on the accelerator oh so slightly while a foot pressed down on one of the rudder pedals to begin veering towards the two fighters. "Stormbringer, be warned, two bogeys headed your way. Moving in to intercept."

They were probably the unlucky pair out on a routine recon run when the rebels had shown up, which explained why they had responded so quickly to their arrival, and why there were only two of them. But unlucky as they might be, Alys had to acknowledge their bravery in charging in all alone to take on a corvette. She would in turn show them the respect they deserved by not underestimating them.

She was on a vector that would make her intercept with them a few clicks out from the Stormbringer, and she had every intention of stopping them before they got anywhere near the corvette. She fired off a concussion missile once she was in range of the fighters, though to them it might seem that they had gotten lucky and were up against a rookie who had overshot her aim in her eagerness to stop them. But she had been involved in more than enough conflicts now to know exactly what she was doing. As the missile was about to fly past the trajectory the fighters were going to take towards the corvette, she opened up with her canons, peppering the missile till it exploded, right in the path of the two fighters. Expecting the missile to miss them, neither of the fighters had slowed down, and now found themselves flying through a tiny debris field that peppered their ships with numerous projectiles.

By the time Alys caught up with them, falling in behind them, one of them was already leaving a smoke trail as it flew in towards the Stormbringer. Alys focused on the other, keeping on its tail as she rained down laser fire on it's engines. The pilot was skilled, having avoided the debris from her missile trick proved that, but she was no pushover either. And finally she managed to land a hit, peeling away as the fighter's engine exploded, and making for the other one, only to notice that the tiny trail of smoke was now much bigger. It was limping its way towards the ship.

"One bogey down, half a bogey headed your way. Happy shooting Stormbringer!"

Sure that the gunners on the corvette would be able to take out the damaged fighter, she turned back towards the planet and continued scanning the skies to spot any more guests to their little shindig.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

«We read you loud and clear, Star One,» Greybok hooted over the comms. He then turned to his gunners. «Maintain your barrage. Take out what's left of the enemy bogey with the autoblaster cannons.» Autoblasters were far less reliable than the medium laser turrets, but the enemy ship was barely limping along, making it an easy kill for the much larger corvette. It was a momentary distraction that came to an end when one of Greybok's deck officer Wookiees informed him that the shield tower had been destroyed. He opened up a channel back to Alys.

«Star One,» he said. «The shield tower is down. I repeat, the station is unprotected. I am moving the Stormbringer into position to fire on their hangar bay. They won't be launching any more annoyances. Your objective is changing. Find out where their repulsors are and transmit targeting data to me. Let's knock this thing out of the sky.»

He cut the communication and glanced down at this deck officers, offering them a nod to follow through on his orders. The corvette shifted into position so that its guns could deliver a full barrage to the station's hangar bay. Then Greybok motioned with his paw and the Stormbringer opened fire, sending a cascade of explosions through the station's hangar bay. Unshielded, it wouldn't last long against the rebel assault. And once it was gone, he would take out the repulsors and let Mimban's gravity do the rest.

The Wookiee glanced down at the navigation pit. Two more minutes and he would have a lock on those hyperspace coordinates. He couldn't wait to get back to Endor and drink with his Squadron after this. @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

"Copy that Star Leader!" She pressed down on one of her rudder peddles again as she transmitted the acknowledgement of her new orders. As her ship turned around, she cut her speed and diverted more power from the Moondancer's engines to its sensors. She flew out a little to the side, before turning back in and towards the station, approaching it now from the side, away from the path of the Stormbringer and its firepower.

With a relatively clear path towards the command center, she was beginning to prep her sensors to begin looking for the repulsor systems when her proximity sensors began blaring. Two more bogeys had shown up behind her. She couldn't tell if they were more scouts or had simply managed to slip out before the Stormbringer began targeting the hangar bay, but they were now hot on her tail and even as she was having these thoughts they began firing at her. She zipped and zapped from side to side, up and down, doing her best to stay out of line of fire and not letting them get a weapons lock on them. But that was a delaying tactic at best, and she needed to figure out a way to deal with them before she could go after the repulsors.

She did have an idea, a crazy idea that she had been playing around with for some time but had yet to perfect. Now seemed as good a time as any. Entering a quick command on her console to run a program she had set up earlier, she opened herself up more firmly to the Force as she fired another missile. But this time, instead of shooting out of its launch tube, the missile simply hung where it was, inside the launch tube but no longer held in place by anything but inertia. She grabbed it with the Force and slipped it out of the lunch tube, picking up speed the moment it was out of the ship, and beginning to build up distance between herself and the missile. With her concentration now split between the missile and flying, the two fighters were beginning to get more shots on her, and warning lights were beginning to light up all over her control panel, another few hits and she was done. But her trick was almost done as well.

As she had picked up speed, so had the fighters chasing her, and that meant they had started catching up to the lonesome missile she had left behind. Just as she was about to lose her grip on the missile, she tugged it up oh so slightly, to bring it right into the path of their laser fire. With a little nudge from the Force, and a little bit of luck and intuition, she was able to time it so that the missile exploded just in front of the two fighters, catching them in its destructive death.

Breathing a little faster now, only now realizing how close that had brought her to her own death, another shot or two would have cut right through the Moondancer, she shot for the floating station. With no more distractions it didn't take long for her to spot the rupolsors, and using her targeting system, she had a missile lock on them and sent the targeting information back to the Stormbringer.

"Repulsors locked on, sharing targeting information now!"

@Malon

 

[Hugo Ion]

While General Greybok had issued his latest command to Alysanne, another Distance-class corvette came out of hyperspace on the left. Onboard the bridge of the vessel was Hugo Ion himself fresh from his meeting on Mandalore. It could’ve gone better, but not as bad as expected either. He thought while sitting in the command seat. No matter, there was a mission to assist.

Gesturing to the communication officer who patched a channel to General Greybrok, Commander Ion spoke. “Stormbringer this is the Deliverance. Apologies for the delay but we’re here to assist.” Soon after the Stormbringer’s crew answered back updating him on the situation. Looking over at the battered station in view, the Durosian nodded with approval at the rebels’ handiwork. As the Deliverance drew in closer to the fight the crew detected Alysanne in action. Enhancing the camera they watched on as the rebel craft flew by following an explosion that took out two Imperial fighters.

“Not bad for a Drast.” He murmured, clearly impressed. Soon enough the Stormbringer and it’s sister ship received the data. Grinning widely Hugo subsequently ordered. “Get us in position we’re going to take this heap of junk down.” Complying the crew maneuvered the corvette and with Wookiee’s ship toward the station’s repulsors.

“Give it everything you got!” He shouted and upon that command volleys of laserfire bombarded toward the repulsers.

@Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alysanne's command console suddenly beeped as the Deliverance jumped out of hyperspace. A smirk appeared on her face as she swung her fighter across to continue running a perimeter around the command center as the Deliverance received the attack vectors as well and began firing.

It didn't take long for the attacks to begin tearing through the repulsors. Alys gave it a few seconds, before turning her ship around and heading back towards the two larger ships, ready to jump back into one of their hangar's and be out of here. She could have stayed and kept an eye on the station as it began slipped down into orbit, but she was sure the corvette's better sensors would be able to track the ship for as long as they needed to.

"Headed back your way command, looks like we're done here!"

@Minuteman75

 

[Hugo Ion]

The resulting explosion by the combined firepower of the two corvettes was a sight to behold. In the command chair Hugo smiled as the crew members cheered. Wasn’t long before the entire station collapsed into the atmosphere. Watching the fall, the Durosian rebel then asked the radar staff. “Is that heap near any population center?”.

Following a quick scan one of the crew members answered. “Negative commander. Nothing but countryside.” Nodding with silent relief Ion released the tightend fists he had held unto the handles. That’s one concern take care of. The resistance leader thought.

While the war was far from over, they were moving in the right. Hearing Alysanne’s message on the air, Hugo replied.

“Copy that Jedi Knight. Time to leave.”

Follqojf Alysanne’s return to the Stormbringer’s hanger bay the two corvettes turned around and once the coordinates were punched in they went into lightspeed.

//End Thread​